There's been a large number of changes with the Ravens since they won the Super Bowl close to three months ago. These are moves that have surprised many fans, but those inside the team knew a bunch of moves were coming.

GM Ozzie Newsome, talking to the media last week in a pre-draft press conference, said that owner Steve Bisciotti and coach John Harbaugh were talking about off-season moves with him as far back as October and November. They knew changes were going to have to be coming after the season.

"It wasn’t that one day we woke up and decided that we were going to let a lot of really good football players walk away and play for other teams, but we had a plan in place," Newsome said when speaking with the media. "We had to allow the plan to unfold."

That plan, or course of action, actually did unfold in the days and weeks after the Ravens beat the 49ers in the Super Bowl. But it was a plan designed to keep the Ravens as a competitive team in not just 2013, but the other years ahead.

However, it was tough to deal with because that plan meant losing players that had meant so much to the franchise and helped the Ravens win that Super Bowl last season.

"It [was] really, really nice," Newsome said. "But it also makes it really, really tough when you go to battle with guys, and then you have to see them walk away from your organization, because we have to prepare for ’14, ’15 and ’16. Steve [Bisciotti] has put the four of us in charge of making sure that we remain a competitive football team, even over the course of that.”